TECH
Keith, how did
SmartVote.ie come into being? I came up with the idea for Smartvote to solve a problem I had experienced during the last local elections. There were 23 candidates running in my constituency, and yet there was no single place where I could go to compare their policies. I thought there has to be a better way to make an informed voting decision! In the summer of 2014, I undertook a Post Graduate at the UCD Innovation Academy, using this time to come up with possible solutions.
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Tell us about the journey from idea to product. To develop the idea I used the Stanford Design Process. I started by speaking to around 500 people, asking them about the problems they experienced around election time. I was then able to define the problem and ideate to come up with possible solutions. I made simple prototypes of what Smartvote might look like, showed them to others, and then the process started again. Following 10 iterations we were ready for our first pilot.
Who supported you in its rollout? The UCD Innovation Academy has been behind Smartvote since it was born, and for our first pilot in UCD we were supported by the University Observer Newspaper and the UCD Student Union. We won an award from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI) and used the funds to build the site for the General Election. The SEI team have been working with us since September 2015, allowing us hot-desk at their offices and providing invaluable support on strategy and goal-setting. We also formed a major partnership with the Union of Students in Ireland for the General Election – they became our feet on the street, helping us realise our ambition that as many students as possible used SmartVote to make an informed voting decision.
How was SmartVote received by the media and by politicians?We asked key media and political scientists for their input when devising the SmartVote questions, which gave us a good grounding in that respect. But I don’t think the political world knew what to make of us at first! They certainly didn’t believe we would be as popular as we are. Many believed that we would never get enough of the parties/candidates to answer the questions, but as we began to prove both the model and the voter interest, we received widespread backing and engagement. It helped that similar apps exist elsewhere in the world – Stemweijzer in Holland, for example, is a VAA used by around 40 per cent of the Dutch electorate.
Your user target number was 150,000, yet you had achieved 250,000 by General Election Day. What has been the ultimate success of SmartVote, in your view? I think Smartvote has revolutionised how people decide who to vote for. Never before in Ireland has it been possible to compare candidates on 30 distinct issues. I think anyone who used Smartvote was more confident in who they voted for. It also made people engage in the election much more than they may have done previously. Students in particular found Smartvote a great way to de-mystify the election, making it far more accessible for them. Overall, we have exceeded our ambitions, and we’ve felt supported and encouraged all the way.
38 INNOVATION IRELAN REVIEW
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